So in a moment of keeping with my heritage I ended up celebrating Dyngys day with my Dad. It really boiled down to having a craving for a good old pork chop. So we ended trying out luck at this place called the "Polish Nook". Needless to say to get my fill of authentic Polish food we had to fight to get in. The place was packed to capacity. Initially they told us that we were not going to get in for the fact that we didn't have reservations. The fact that my Dad does some catering business with them and they were desperately out of singles and I had about 25 dollars worth since it was tip day at work for me, we squeezed our way in. So I had my Polish food fix as I recalled my old dearly departed family relatives. To see the energy and people just taking it all in was great. After dinner we just briefly stopped by and checked out the Polka band.

It was just great to see the place packed and the tradition kept alive. In actuality I thought that something like Dyngus Day would be falling off by the wayside, but here in WNY we keep any reason to party alive I suppose.

It is in the "old neighborhood" in east Niagara Falls a place where my great grandparents, grandparents and great aunts and uncles lived for about 75-80 years. It was a nice descent place when the factories on Buffalo Avenue pumped out cyclical goods. The neighborhood was filled with mostly people of Polish Heritage. Obviously this type of American dream in this area died when all of the factories closed. We all know the rise and fall of Western New York.

I lived in that neighborhood for about 2 years in my great uncle's house. When we had a buyer for the place we just took the money and ran. Ok, it was strange to try to take a trip to the past for one night for dinner. Just driving through the area and seeing homes that go for about 25,000 will not life your spirit.

Just for one day to see it alive and thrive it was a great sight to see.

Missing Image ;(

Missing Image ;(

My first Sabre's game this year, and the regular season is pretty much done. Well At least I have 1 playoff game to look forward to that I am sure of that I will be attending.

Well off for some beer @ the Harbor Club on the 200 level!!!!!

EDIT

Well the game was a blowout Buffalo 6 Toronto 0. The first shutout of the year for the Sabres. Just attending this game made me realize how much I miss hockey. So I finally get to a game and it the last home game of the season. Why couldn't I have gone in September or October even, oh yea that's right this team kicks ass.

So we arrived about an hour early and I just had a bit to eat and a couple Bud Lights "The Official Beer of the NHL" at the 200 level Harbour Club and sat in the seating section overlooking the fine dining section in the 100 level section. It has been probaly about 12-13 years since I went to a game with my Dad.

In reminiscing about years past and how my late Grandmother loved going to the games we discussed the old Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. There was the forerunner to the Harbour club called "The Aud Club" a place for season ticket holders and generally rich people to enjoy the games in a comfortable exclusive atmosphere full of amenties. Well my Dad in his old job got tickets and a fully paid expense account at this place. It was great but the bummer was as a kid I would have to wear a sportcoat and tie to be admitted to this "Aud Club" and it was a bummer when all you wanted to do was dress comfortablly and wear a hockey jersey.

In going over memories with my Dad we discussed how much Bobcei like the carved prime rib that they served in the buffett. Remembering how they have taken over some of the old items from the aud next door I suggested that we walk down to the 100 level and check out, "The Poor Man's Aud Club." We ended up splitting a carved roast beef sandwich and it was like I was able to say Hi to my Grandma for a quick instant. OH, BTW she Hated Toronto and would have loved the game! Ha Ha

The funniest thing I heard while at the game was this kid saying as he looked at the old standings from the Aud as they brought the two bulletin boards over from the Aud. Now they had the Sabres stats for the roster for the season of 95-96 and the standings of the same year. This kid said, "I didn't know Ottawa used to be real bad" commenting on their last palce position in the standings. Funny Stuff. I really am getting old.

It was a nice little (e:strip) trifecta last night. What started out in me trying out Frizzy's for the first time ended up being a evening filled with good conversation and stories and followed by the show as usual at the Old Pink. ((e:Sbrugger)) and ((e:Theecarey)), thank you for a fun night. It was really nice to meet you Austin and hear you good old stories from the old school of NU.

Carey, my Ex is pretty anit-blog we will never see her on the strip. Actually I'm convinced my LJ sped up the decomposition of our relationship. It was one of those fun nights where you didn't want to head out and the bar and go home.

The highlight of the day so far was shopping @ Wegmans. Before I ventured into the isles I had a chicken finger sub. While i was eating in the shop I overheard and employee on break spilling all of her life's problems to a co-worker. It was the mother of a woman that was murdered in Las Vegas about 5 years ago and she talked about how tough life is and how Easter is still going to be hallow. Now I did lose a sister about 8 years ago now. Time is relative and everyone needs their own amount to deal with things. My guilty self just thought that my PALMS Las Vegas hat may have triggered some bad memory, since the place is across the street from the Rio where she worked. Then we just logically deducted that she would have been the same way regardless if I was there or not. I do feel bad for her. Those things never do quite go away.

It did make me a bit nostalgic for Easter. What I ended up doing to get in touch with those feelings was buying myself a quarter pound of Krakus Ham.


Now I am going to stop sitting inside and head outdoors. I have an evening planned with an old friend. It has been ages since we last hung out, all of which is my fault for being a total ____. We will leave it at that I suppose, hopefully things will take on as a new leaf in spring.





EDIT: It was The Flaming Lips that did that car commercial song @ the Pink

I have come to realize that most of the reason of why I choose my current living situation is the fact that it is the closest I can feel to nature. I don't think I can live in a place in which I can't hear birds chirp or see a little furry bunny every once in a while. Soon this is all going to change, for better or worse the vibes I have been getting have not positive. I had a scare last week with my great aunt in which we though she was going to be close to leaving this mortal coil. Thankfully that was not the case. Half the reason why I stay around here is family and if that changes then the percentages will change and a move will become more attractive.

On another note I found out today that the tournament director was let go after an investigation and hearing. It all originates back to our WPT style tournament we had in February. Apparently nothing good has come out of that event. My big boss and most of the reason why I choose to stay at my job was him was fired for taking the revenue from 3 of the events. Then apparently The tournament director, a hostess and another floor were snapping pictures of themselves in compromising positions during the tournament and its events and posted them online. Not only that but The director ended up sleeping with one of the players, someone that you see on TV regularly. The consequence was not only losing her job, but her potential marriage. Her fiancee found out and called off the wedding. What degenerates I work with and more reason to get out of that place as soon as I can!! Yikes!

I felt it last night before I tried to get to bed after checking out Tom Jones. ((e:jenks)) wrote a very emotionally filled post about the utter disappointment with the male gender in this metro area. To be perfectly honest I can not blame her at all. I have lived here all my life and seen guys do some pretty screwed up stuff. Not that they don't do it anywhere else, (my Ex's Father gave her a lifetime of therapy) but around here it does seem that us males do contemplate our actions on a sub-base level of consciousness. Lord knows I have fallen down there in the bowels of something that can be described as a masculine mental deficiency.

Then I go to work and find a mess awaiting me. Larry, the nicest guy you will ever meet was out $800. He was beside himself and at the last time we checked surveillance was still looking for it. The poor guy he has a newborn at home, he needs this job. While if it ever came to the ultimate frustration I could just say, "See Ya." Even if they fired me as long as I could pay c.o.b.r.a and get an OK for a reference I would be alright.

I am not rich, but I'm not poor either. I could survive working a crap job in this town until I got my act straighten out or went back to school. Heck, taking a couple summer months off right now would actually be fun.

An interesting weekend to in the sense that I ended up hanging out with my friend Tom and just crawled along Allen St. Running into a bunch of people that I haven't seen in a while is always a good time. The strangest part of the night was witnessing two people that I have know in the past stand side by side and back to back to each other for about an hour and a half. It was pretty much surreal and my friend Tom got a big kick out of it. Due to the fact that A* is our common friend Pat's arch enemy, or as he refers to her as the "Anti-Pat." Ironically his room ate Gabriel showed up later graced us with her presence.


Saturday I ended up going to out to the Olympic Family Restaurant on Sheridan and Military. What goes on in the heads of Ken-Ton men is beyond me. I once knew a guy from Kenmore and we always would go to this place after a night out and such. He was sort of a stereotypical Kenmore guy, he got me into the Notorious B.I.G and drove around in a pimped out Honda, went to Canisus High School, but he was a descent guy. Eric never was an asshole to anyone. In fact he would always get the worst of it. If I told you about his ex-wife you would understand.

Then there are guys like this in the Ken-Ton Area going into this place drunk at 2am.
The low point was this drunk guy trying to pick up a waitress there and the reply she gave back was just messed up. It was basically this:

Guy: Wanna go out sometime
Wait: You're joking right?
Guy: No, I really want you, here is my #
Wait: Do you know how old I am? I'm an old lady!
Guy: I don't care you have a nice ass
Wait: I'm 30 and have 2 kids
Guy: All I want to do is Fuck!
Wait: How old are you?
Guy: 22
Wait: Well Ok, I'll hold on to you # and think about it. Have a nice night!

I hate to stereotype but he had on South Pole gear, a few gold chains and a white baseball cap. Needless to say the whole restaurant stopped and just honed in and listen to all of this go down. I love guys that know how to respectfully talk to a woman!

What is going on over the last week or so? I have seen and been witness to some remarkable women being dumped by their guys! I can see dumping someone that is a bad person but these women are hot and intelligent. That is a combo that you don't come across too often. Well you can always say that sometimes men feel intimidated by intelligence, but come on now!

I did read a interesting quote on someone's myspace page, "For every attractive woman you see someone got sick of her!"

Scary thought

Just my question is: What kind of women are these guys going to replace their ex-girlfriends with?

I feel really bad that the only time I ever make an appearance at Mohawk Place is when there is a Transmission Dance Party. Here is the pretty descent place that features good local music and solid recording artists and I never go to enjoy that aspect of the place. I go to hang with underage kids dancing to music that first came out when they were probably in elementary school! Well at least I can take comfort in that thought. Usually the theme of a Smiths v. Cure or Depeche Mode v. New Order features songs that were recorded when most of the attendees were not born yet.

The way I look at it at least I get to go and look at the black and white signed photo of The White Stripes over the archway midway down the bar. It's always fun to show my friends that Jack White III and Meg White autograph and say "They played here!!! OMG!!!" Then again where am I going to find PBR for $2?

OK weekend slumber over, back to reality and the effort to change it.

Being the good boyfriend with my Ex (i.e. doing things that I should have done when we are together) I humored her and ventured out to Levels. Dance clubs on the Chip Strip make me gag. In all the time we were dating never did I go with her to that place no matter how much she begged me. Years ago when it was Zoo Bar I stopped in a few times but that was it. Never really enjoyed myself there and nothing ever spectacular ever occurred in a place like that. Heck the existence of a place of that nature reinforces the fact that 54% of Americans have an IQ lower than 89.

Please note I am not a total freak! The difference in why we went this night was it was the Fetish Ball. Now I attended Fetish nights at the Continental and they were off the wall and out of this world. Oh, some good memories. I even participated once and may post...UMMM on 2nd thought

This night was pretty lame. Evil Jim from 103.3 was there and it was unspectacular. All they really had to offer was a gift bag of condoms, lube, Planned Parenthood numbers, adds for a lingerie place on Hertel and a really bad Porn DVD.

The highlight was an old Drag Queen V that I had known from back in the day. Apparently the surgery was very successful! Wow is all I can say after about 7 years. It has been that long since I went to the drag show at Marcella's.

Overall she wanted to leave early, as the whole event was a big disappointment. It was the same crowd as any weekend night at Levels. In all just a total lack of substance. Yes, the people from lesbian karaoke At Roxy's did do a good job M.C.ing the event and doing a suicide girlsesque number. It was just a big let down. Especially this guy from NYC that tried rapping in a Lords of Acid type of way, but coming off a combination of bad performance art and Vanilla Ice. Yea, after him it was time to go at that point. I did like the ultra lounge in the front of the place. The only redeeming quality of the place.

Yea read a post in which someone mentioned the Pop Godess Britney Spears, this may be of interest



Wanted to head out tonight, but just ended up cleaning.

A bit of a waste given I don't have to work until 2:45 in the afternoon.